Letter to the editor: Ethanol production makes U.S. vulnerable

Fact: In President Jimmy Carter’s 1980 State of the Union Address, he asked Congress to budget for the nation’s “most massive peacetime investment in the development of synthetic fuels (biofuel).”

In President George W. Bush's 2008 State of the Union Address, he said, "Our security, our prosperity, and our environment all require reducing our dependence on oil." Thus, the implicit energy goal since 1980 has been to replace oil with ethanol. Ethanol causes the foreign oil imports problem.

Now, we know that this goal is impossible to reach. We now know that annual ethanol production has plateaued at a 2010 level of about 317 million barrels annually. Yet, continuing this impossible goal is the reason why we have a national security vulnerability from such a large amount of foreign oil imports.